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America’s best and worst states for religious freedom — and what it means for our future
Now is a good time for religion in America.
President Trump has established the White House Religious Liberty Commission, led by a diverse group of religious leaders and scholars, including Mary Margaret Bush, Napa Legal’s own former executive director. The commission is identifying some of the nation’s most pressing religious liberty issues and developing plans for action.
Lawmakers should take advantage of the moment to enact durable protections that will outlast any administration.
The U.S. Supreme Court, too, has protected religious liberty in several crucial cases. In Carson v. Makin (2022), the court held that it is unconstitutional to exclude religious schools from generally available government funding programs. In Kennedy v. Bremerton, it found that coach Joseph Kennedy’s postgame prayers did not violate the First Amendment. This year brought additional victories in Mahmoud v. Taylor, where the court upheld parents’ rights to opt their children out of LGBT content in elementary school classes, and Catholic Charities v. Wisconsin, where a unanimous court prevented state officials from favoring some religions over others.
These encouraging developments might tempt Americans to believe that the battle for nationwide religious freedom has already been won.
Yet even with such powerful forces defending religious liberty at the federal level, state laws affecting religious organizations remain critical for ensuring that everyday Americans do not suffer persecution for their firmly held religious beliefs.
Consider what just happened in Washington state.
In 2025, Catholic priests there faced an impossible choice between obeying their faith and complying with state law. A new Washington state statute required clergy to report instances of abuse or neglect they heard during confession, despite the Church’s centuries-old sacramental seal. The law singled out priests while giving others, like lawyers, a pass, and it carried the threat of jail time and fines.
Thankfully, a federal court blocked the law before it could take effect, ruling in Etienne v. Ferguson that the state could not force clergy to violate the sacred seal of confession.
But that case never should have been necessary. Washington’s law reflected the same pattern Napa Legal’s research has uncovered repeatedly: When state laws are weak or hostile to faith-based organizations, those organizations are left vulnerable even when the federal government and Supreme Court appear friendly to religion.
This month, the Napa Legal Institute released the third edition of the Faith and Freedom Index, an analysis of state laws across the country that either help or hinder religious organizations. Whether national politics seem to favor or oppose religious liberty, state laws remain central to its long-term health.
The states with the top overall scores were:
- Alabama
- Kansas
- Indiana
- Texas
- Mississippi
The five lowest scores went to:
- Michigan
- Washington
- Massachusetts
- West Virginia
- Maryland
What distinguishes the states at the top of the list from those at the bottom? Several types of laws come into play. For example, the index’s highest performing states have built frameworks that proactively safeguard religious organizations. Their laws provide broad protections for religious exercise and create environments where ministries can thrive.
By contrast, it’s no coincidence that Washington state ranks near the bottom. The same state that passed one of the most intrusive laws in recent memory also reflects on the Index a legal system that makes it far too easy for governments to intrude on matters of faith.
That is why it is important to strike while the iron is hot. When the federal government is friendly to religious liberty, that is precisely the time to act. Political conditions can change quickly, but good laws endure. Lawmakers should take advantage of the moment to enact durable protections that will outlast any administration.
RELATED: Why Trump’s religious liberty agenda terrifies the left
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
There are many reasons why state laws remain decisive. First, state statutes can still contradict clear federal precedent. After the Supreme Court struck down Wisconsin’s discriminatory law in Catholic Charities v. Wisconsin, a similar law remained in effect in New York. Religious organizations there had to continue the litigation even after the Supreme Court had essentially decided the issue.
It is also not enough for states to rely solely on constitutional protections or a Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
These safeguards are vital but not sufficient. When a religious organization’s hiring or service conflicts with state “nondiscrimination” laws, it should not have to spend years in court to prove its right to operate according to its beliefs. States can and should pass clear exemptions that prevent such conflicts from ever arising.
Finally, state tax and regulatory codes can have a major impact on whether faith-based organizations thrive. Many religious nonprofits are treated like for-profit corporations, subject to tax regimes and administrative filings, fees, and audits that make it hard for them to operate. States should look closely at such laws and remove unnecessary burdens that divert precious time and resources away from ministry and service.
No matter who sits in the White House or on the Supreme Court, state laws remain a foundation of religious liberty. The Faith and Freedom Index remains an important tool to protect and foster the work of religious organizations and religious liberty in general.
Voters should consider how laws in their states burden religion when they cast their votes. Policymakers should pay close attention to laws that may seem tedious but can make or break the needed work of religious organizations. And our government leaders should work to enact laws that foster religious liberty, so that religion can serve its proper role in contributing to the common good.
Middle school boy faces 10 felonies in AI nude scandal. But expulsion of girl, 13 — an alleged victim — sparks firestorm.
A Louisiana middle school boy is facing 10 felony counts for using AI to create fake nude photos of female classmates and sharing them with other students, according to multiple reports. However, one alleged female victim has been expelled following her reported reaction to the scandal.
On Aug. 26, detectives with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation into reports that male students had shared fake nude photos of female classmates at the Sixth Ward Middle School in Choctaw.
‘What’s going on here, I’ll be quite frank, is nothing more than disgusting.’
Benjamin Comeaux, an attorney representing the alleged female victim, said the images used real photos of the girls, including selfies, with AI-generated nude bodies, the Washington Post reported.
Comeaux said administrators reported the incident to the school resource officer, according to the Post.
The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the incident “led to an altercation on a school bus involving one of the male students and one of the female students.”
Comeaux said during a bus ride, several boys shared AI-made nude images of a 13-year-old girl, and the girl in question struck one of the students sharing the images, the Post reported.
However, school administrators expelled the 13-year-old girl over the physical altercation.
Meanwhile, police said that a male suspect on Sept. 15 was charged with 10 counts of unlawful dissemination of images created by artificial intelligence.
The sheriff’s office noted that the investigation is ongoing, and there is a possibility of additional arrests and charges.
Sheriff Craig Webre noted that the female student involved in the alleged bus fight will not face criminal charges “given the totality of the circumstances.”
Webre added that the investigation involves technology and social media platforms, which could take several weeks and even months to “attain and investigate digital evidence.”
The alarming incident was brought back to life during a fiery Nov. 5 school board meeting during which attorneys for the expelled female student slammed school administrators.
According to WWL-TV, an attorney said, “She had enough, what is she supposed to do?”
“She reported it to the people who are supposed to protect her, but she was victimized, and finally she tried to knock the phone out of his hand and swat at him,” the same attorney added.
One attorney also noted, “This was not a random act of violence … this was a reasonable response to what this kid endured, and there were so many options less than expulsion that could’ve been done. Had she not been a victim, we’re not here, and none of this happens.”
Her representatives also warned, “You are setting a dangerous precedent by doing anything other than putting her back in school,” according to WWL.
Matthew Ory, one of the attorneys representing the female student, declared, “What’s going on here, I’ll be quite frank, is nothing more than disgusting. Her image was taken by artificial intelligence and manipulated and manufactured to be child pornography.”
School board member Valerie Bourgeois pushed back by saying, “Yes, she is a victim, I agree with that, but if she had not hit the young man, we wouldn’t be here today, it wouldn’t have come to an expulsion hearing.”
Tina Babin, another school board member, added, “I found the video on the bus to be sickening, the whole thing, everything about it, but the fact that this child went through this all day long does weigh heavy on me.”
Lafourche Parish Public Schools Superintendent Jarod Martin explained, “Sometimes in life, we can be both victims and perpetrators. Sometimes in life, horrible things happen to us, and we get angry and do things.”
Ultimately, the school board allowed the girl to return to school, but she will be on probation until January.
Attorneys for the girl’s family, Greg Miller and Morgyn Young, told WWL that they intend to file a lawsuit.
“Nobody took any action to confiscate cell phones, to put an end to this,” Miller claimed. “It’s pure negligence on the part of the school board.”
Martin defended the district in a statement that read:
Any and all allegations of criminal misconduct on our campuses are immediately reported to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office. After reviewing this case, the evidence suggests that the school did, in fact, follow all of our protocols and procedures for reporting such instances.
Sheriff Webre warned, “While the ability to alter images has been available for decades, the rise of AI has made it easier for anyone to alter or create such images with little to no training or experience.”
Webre also said, “This incident highlights a serious concern that all parents should address with their children.”
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Stevie Nicks just said the quiet part out loud about abortion — and it’s horrifying
Almost every civilization has, at one point or another, practiced child sacrifice. In our rebellion against God and rejection of Jesus Christ, modern America is no exception.
While we may not burn our children like the Canaanites, cut out their hearts like the Aztecs, or drown them like the Gauls, we most certainly sacrifice our children in acts of worship to benefit ourselves.
We cannot afford to overlook the severity of this sin or its stench before the one true and living God.
Take the example of Stevie Nicks, the singer-songwriter best known for her years with Fleetwood Mac. Nicks boasted about the benefits of her past abortion in a recent video posted on social media and described as a “must watch” by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In recalling her past abortion, Nicks was not filled with regret or shame, but with a sober admission that murdering her own pre-born baby was worthwhile for allowing her to continue her music career.
“Fleetwood Mac is three years in, and it’s big, and we’re going into our third album,” Nicks recounted.
“It would have destroyed Fleetwood Mac,” she said of her baby.
“I would have, like, tried my best to get through, you know, being in the studio every single day expecting a child,” Nicks continued.
“It would have been a nightmare scenario for me to live through.”
RELATED: Fleetwood Mac’s real breakup story: Death before motherhood
Rather than making Nicks seem sympathetic in her decision to have an abortion, the video posted by the Center for Reproductive Rights made her look callous. The organization plainly acknowledged that “access to abortion made her life, her art, and her voice possible.”
Nicks admitted to murdering her baby in exchange for career success: She took the life of her own child for the specific reason of pursuing stardom in the music world.
In other words, she committed child sacrifice.
In the same way that past civilizations sacrificed their children to enable abundant harvests, victory over their enemies, or improved rainfalls, Americans sacrifice our children to enable success in our careers, more financial freedom, or fewer inconvenient responsibilities.
But unlike other civilizations, we do not murder our children in the name of any specific false god or demonic entity. Instead we serve ourselves as our own gods — murdering our babies as an act of devotion in the cult of our own autonomy.
We cannot afford to overlook the severity of this sin or its stench before the one true and living God.
Rather than speaking clearly on abortion as child sacrifice, many pro-life organizations over the past few decades have not only downplayed the distinctly spiritual nature of the abortion holocaust, but have insisted that many of its perpetrators are themselves victims.
In speaking about abortion — even writing laws against abortion — many pro-life leaders emphasize the small minority of cases in which women are compelled with threat of life and limb into having abortions.
But in the vast majority of cases, women who have abortions are active participants or even willful initiators, not passive victims compelled into abortions they do not want.
Stevie Nicks is a perfect example. By her own admission, nobody forced her into having an abortion. Nicks willfully chose her music career over the life of her child, and several decades later, she would clearly make the same decision once more.
The notion that all women are categorical second victims of abortion downplays the moral agency women have as image-bearers of God and obscures the justice due to pre-born babies as true victims of abortion.
By defending the legal ability of women to willfully murder their own children, pro-life organizations sorrowfully allow the abortion holocaust to continue, even in conservative states that misleadingly claim to ban abortion.
RELATED: Why defunding Planned Parenthood is a distraction from the real fight
Just like men, women are ultimately responsible for their own actions. Just like men, women will one day stand in judgment before God and provide an account for those actions.
Stevie Nicks may publicly boast about her abortion today, but when she stands before a perfectly holy God, she will no longer boast in her decision. And unless she turns from her sins and trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation, she will bear the penalty of her decision for all of eternity.
When pro-life organizations insist that women can only be victims of abortion — and oppose laws that would criminalize abortion for all parties willfully involved — they fail to deter women from committing sin that destroys both their babies and their very own eternal souls.
That is why we must simply make murdering anyone illegal for everyone.
The exact same laws that protect born people from murder must protect pre-born people as well, or else we are denying the truth that pre-born babies are image-bearers of God worthy of equal protection under our laws.
The existing laws against murder deter the vast majority of murders from happening in the first place. If we extend those same laws to apply from fertilization — without loopholes allowing women to enjoy special murder privileges over their pre-born babies — we will deter the vast majority of abortions as well.
God judges nations that commit child sacrifice. America is well on its way to joining the Canaanites, the Aztecs, and the Gauls in the history of nations that murder their own children and are brought to their knees by the God who cannot endure such rebellion forever.
If we want our nation to continue, we must protect all image-bearers of God from murder, criminalizing the unjustified taking of human life for everyone willfully involved.
Rather than rebelling against God, our nation must turn in repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ — abandoning the works of death and once more bowing the knee to the only one who offers everlasting life.
The hard truth about sunscreen
Since the 1980s, society has become increasingly heliophobic. Dermatologists warn “there’s no such thing as a healthy tan.” Influencers and celebrities urge us to slather on high SPF products any time we leave the house. Public health agencies like the CDC now list sunscreen as a daily essential alongside seat belts and flu shots.
Is all this solar alarmism really merited?
Dr. Paul Saladino — a double board certified MD, host of the “Fundamental Health” podcast, and author of “The Carnivore Code” — says no. And in fact, it’s the sunscreen itself we should be scrutinizing, he told BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan on an episode of “Back to the People.”
While sunscreen advocates constantly warn of sun exposure-linked cancers, Dr. Saladino points out that the majority of mainstream sunscreens are ironically full of carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, like benzene, oxybenzone, octocrylene, and avobenzone.
Further, villainizing the sun makes no sense from an “evolutionary, historical, anthropological perspective,” he says. “Most animals have a sense of when they’ve gotten too much sun. This is just intrinsic to life on the earth.”
“You can’t produce vitamin D naturally without sunshine, nor can you produce … melatonin,” Nicole adds.
“Exactly. … We can supplement with melatonin, and we can supplement with vitamin D, but questions remain about whether that’s the same as being in the sun,” Dr. Saladino agrees.
Sun exposure is also critical for our circadian rhythm – our body’s natural 24-hour internal clock that regulates sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, body temperature, and other functions in sync with day and night.
And perhaps most importantly, it just makes us happy. Sunlight is one of the biggest factors in depression risk. “We know that endorphins are produced when you go out in the sun, so these are the feel-good chemicals in our bodies suggestive of some sort of evolutionary mechanism that spurs us as humans to crave the sun in reasonable amounts,” says Dr. Saladino.
On top of that, sunlight triggers the production of nitric oxide in our skin, which widens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. Dr. Saladino says that “there have been studies in humans” proving the cardiovascular benefits of sun exposure.
And yet despite all the evidence that sunlight is critical to human flourishing, the medical industry continues to demonize it and insists we douse ourselves in toxic chemicals that block sunlight.
So what’s the answer? How do we reap the necessary benefits of sunlight while still protecting ourselves from overexposure?
Dr. Saladino has several suggestions to help you stay safe and healthy:
1. If you feel you need some protection from the sun, try “covering up” or opting for mineral sunscreens, specifically “non-nano zinc oxide” sunscreens. These products sit on the skin’s surface and block UV rays without risk of absorption.
2. As far as sun exposure goes, Dr. Saladino says every person’s limit is different. It “depends on skin tone at base, where you are in the world, and the season,” he says. He recommends using a free app called D-Minder, which calculates your optimal sun exposure time to produce vitamin D without burning based on factors like skin type, location, age, weight, and UV index.
3. For naturally pale-skinned people, he recommends morning sunlight, as there’s less UV rays at that time.
4. Trust your instincts. “Most of us as humans have an intrinsic sense of when we’ve gotten enough sun,” he says. “If you are sitting indoors and the sun looks delicious … and it feels heavenly, your body probably needs that sunlight.”
To hear more of Dr. Saladino’s take on the “anti-sun establishment,” watch the episode above.
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Democrat ex-lawmaker who heckled Trump convicted in COVID fraud scheme
A leftist former lawmaker was sentenced last month after being convicted of fraudulently obtaining a COVID-19 relief loan.
Ibraheem Samirah, a former Democratic Virginia state delegate, made headlines in 2019 for interrupting President Donald Trump’s Jamestown speech, holding up a sign that read, “Deport hate” and “reunite my family.”
‘The defendant was stealing federal tax dollars at the same time he was deciding how to spend Virginia tax dollars.’
Samirah, 34, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $88,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, according to a Tuesday report from the Washington Post.
Prosecutors argued that the former lawmaker received an $83,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan in May 2020 for his dental practice in Fairfax County. He applied in August 2021 to have the loan forgiven, which would require the PPP funds to have been used for payroll, rent, or mortgage payments.
Samirah claimed that the loan would be used to pay four workers at his practice. However, court documents revealed that his business had no payroll employees. Additionally, it had no active financial account to disburse payroll funds until a few days before applying for the loan.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Samirah allegedly fabricated payroll and tax records to secure the loan. The funds were distributed through bank accounts belonging to the supposed employees and then transferred into Samirah’s own account, according to prosecutors.
“The defendant was stealing federal tax dollars at the same time he was deciding how to spend Virginia tax dollars,” prosecutors wrote.
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Samirah told the Post that he had a “mistaken understanding of the PPP loan process,” which he claimed was “weaponized by Donald Trump’s Justice Department.”
He told the news outlet that he intended to use the cash to hire workers to market his business; however, on the loan application, he claimed that the funds would go to existing employees. He explained that he changed his mind about hiring new workers after realizing the pandemic would be prolonged. Instead, he spent the money on dental equipment and office furnishings, which were not authorized uses of the funds.
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America didn’t lose its tech edge — globalist CEOs gave it away
Everything you interact with is now built by people who don’t understand you, and your kids are pushed out of the job market.
From the front lines of corporate tech, I can confirm what many Americans already suspect: The H-1B program has produced a workplace disaster. It has compromised security. It has degraded the quality of everyday software. Worst of all, it has crushed the job prospects of American workers.
We don’t need to accept a corporate-designed future in which our industries no longer employ us and the products no longer serve us.
I’ve spent more than a decade inside corporate tech. In that time — especially after COVID — the number of Americans on my left and right has steadily dropped. Meanwhile, offshore offices multiply and more foreign workers arrive under visas. And they’re not doing low-stakes tasks. They’re building internal portals for insurance companies, managing databases that store your medical records, and writing the code behind your bank and utility apps.
Look at the results. Your bank’s mobile app crawls. Basic online bill-pay feels like an endurance test. Everyday American services — airlines, grocery chains, utilities — deploy software that barely works. The root cause sits in boardrooms across the Fortune 500: fire Americans, import cheaper labor, and call it efficiency. Why pay an American engineer $150,000 when an H-1B worker costs $100,000 and can be deported for missing an unrealistic goal?
Here’s the pattern I’ve watched repeat across company after company.
An H-1B hire climbs the ladder to director or vice president. He earns that rise largely by finding “inefficiencies,” which usually means firing Americans. He then pushes leadership to open more H-1B slots or to contract with a “consulting firm” staffed almost entirely from abroad.
Executives applaud because the invoices are low and the offshore teams rarely say no to any request, no matter how impossible. And when the savings look good enough, leadership shutters the American division altogether and replaces it with an “innovation center” in Bangalore. Look at the savings!
The American worker who survives this gets a grim reward: meetings at 6 a.m. to accommodate India Standard Time, an office filled with co-workers who share neither language nor culture, an org chart dominated by unfamiliar and unpronounceable names, and a career path with no upward mobility. And that’s if the worker is fortunate enough to have a job at all. Bleak.
The numbers paint an even darker picture. According to the Cengage Group’s 2025 Employability Report, only 41% of 2024 college graduates found full-time work related to their fields. In 2025, that number fell to 30%. Some analysts blame AI, but the claim doesn’t survive contact with reality. A recent MIT report found that despite $30-$40 billion in corporate spending on AI tools, 95% of organizations show no return on that investment — even though nearly half of office workers already use AI in some form.
RELATED: The H-1B system is broken. Here’s how to fix it.
Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images
If AI were truly replacing white-collar workers at scale, why did these same corporations ask the federal government to approve 141,207 H-1B visas in 2024?
The truth is simpler: Importing cheaper, compliant labor remains the easiest way for corporate leadership to cut costs, pad bonuses, and build bigger homes in Southlake — while American workers pay the price.
America is not obligated to subsidize its own replacement. We don’t need to accept a corporate-designed future in which our industries no longer employ us and the products no longer serve us. The American middle class built the modern technology economy. It should not be pushed aside so that executives can chase savings that hollow out the country one layoff at a time.
Enough.
